In reviews and competitions, wines are tasted with other wines. What stands out boldly gets attention, and the subtleties are lost. Our winemaker, Jeff Baker, believes wine is food. It should be paired harmoniously, and enjoyed, with food.

Our winemaking is informed by classic European traditions. We seek deep color, a rich, sweet palate impression, and complex aromas and flavors that marry grape and oak nuances. We make balanced wines that are delightful to drink young and that gain nuance and softness with age.

From each vintage, we produce two Bordeaux-style estate-grown wines, Stone Edge Farm Cabernet Sauvignon and Surround Red Bordeaux Blend.

We carefully hand-harvest individual blocks of our grapes at peak ripeness, then hand-sort them before and after de-stemming. Berries are cold-soaked for a few days before fermentations are carried out with either natural or Bordeaux yeasts in small vessels, with the caps punched down by hand. We press each newly fermented lot in a gentle basket press to separate wine from skins without extracting harsh components and to obtain a tannin structure that encourages development of silky complexity.

Our wines are aged in tight-grained French oak barrels for twenty to thirty months. They are racked several times to provide small amounts of air for maturation. The wines are unfined, with light filtration at bottling.

To capture all the complexity of our vineyards, we farm our land with close attention to the myriad details that contribute to flavors in the ripening grape.

We have found that the most intensely flavored grapes come from vines whose size and vigor are naturally limited to producing very small clusters. Our three vineyards—Stone Edge, Mount Pisgah, and Silver Cloud—share ideal conditions for growing such vines, especially Cabernet Sauvignon: rocky, highly permeable soils; extended warm summers with limited rainfall; and cool, foggy coastal mornings.

Through organic farming, we are able to build a vibrant, living soil to nurture deeply rooted vines that bear highly concentrated fruit. Our low-input practices encourage biodiversity to maintain a natural balance in our vineyards. Nature also lends a hand. Birds, bats, and predatory insects devour harmful pests, and hawks, owls, snakes, bobcats, and foxes consume rodents. Cover crops prevent erosion, replenish the soil with nutrients and organic matter, and provide habitat for beneficial insects.

At Stone Edge Farm, each grapevine is tended by hand seven or more times during the growing season to ensure even, optimal ripeness at harvest.

Stone Edge Farm Vineyard

Over one-fourth of our farm is devoted to vineyard, with 1,815 closely spaced (4 feet by 6 feet) vines on each of 4.4 acres, mostly Cabernet Sauvignon. The grapevines are rooted in 100 feet of stone-studded alluvial soil, specifically the Los Robles series, a loamy, gravelly, and less sandy version of Bordeaux’s Left Bank.

Set against the foothills of Sonoma Mountain and hard by Carriger Creek, the farm is sheltered from the west winds that chill nearby Carneros. Planted in 1996, our vineyards received California Certified Organic Farm (CCOF) certification in 2002. Cabernet Sauvignon grown here typically shows ripe plum and cherry aromas and flavors.

Mount Pisgah Vineyard

A two-acre vineyard perched 1,300 feet up the western slope of the Mayacamas Mountains, Mount Pisgah consists of two blocks of closely spaced vines (4 feet by 9 feet, and 5 feet by 9 feet) with 1,210 and 968 plants per acre, respectively. Here, Cabernet Sauvignon grows on well-drained soils of decomposed lava and fractured basaltic rock that encourage deeply rooted vines. The vineyard sits above the summer fog line near the summit of Mount Pisgah, surrounded by oak, madrone, bay, Toyon, pine, and Douglas fir. The vines were planted in 1998 and CCOF-certified in 2006. Wines made from here offer ripe cherry aromas with hints of black pepper and savory spice. Mount Pisgah rests within the newly approved Moon Mountain District viticultural area.

Silver Cloud Vineyard

Our newest estate vineyard, acquired in 2012, is Silver Cloud. This mountain retreat is located 1,800 feet above the Sonoma Valley floor on the west side of the Mayacamas range, which divides Sonoma from Napa. Silver Cloud includes 10 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon and 1 acre each of Merlot and Cabernet Franc, all in 5 feet by 8 feet spacing on well-drained volcanic soils, with a vine count of 1,089 per acre. Our viticulturist, Phil Coturri, has been working his organic magic, and we eagerly anticipate tasting our first wines from this promising property. Silver Cloud is also within the new Moon Mountain District.